…a boomer muses about life, change, joys, sorrows and freedom from the prison of corporate life.

Powerbook, Oh Powerbook!

This is my Mac Powerbook, affectionately known as “P.” I bought it second-hand on eBay in 2005 and it has served me well. I also have an iBook called Danbo, named after the robot decal on its cover. The iBook is like the baby of the family because it’s 13″ compared to P, which is 17″ and more or less the “adult” computer which I keep in my office and on which I write many of my blog posts. The iBook is more portable and thus gets to hang out upstairs and downstairs.

So, about a week ago Monday, I was working on my Powerbook and kept hearing a crackling noise, but, like those elusive rattles in your car, when I stopped to listen, it didn’t happen. At first I worried that the power cord was sparking like the one I wrote about a few months back that actually caught on fire while I was using the iBook. But I checked it and it looked fine. I worked a little more and kept hearing that darned noise! Finally, I crawled under the computer table to check the power outlets. They were fine, too. What the heck? Nonetheless, I kept working and then the screen went black and everything DIED. And I don’t mean kinda or semi or maybe…no this thing was dead as a doornail! Nothing would revive it. Since years ago I had a smaller Powerbook whose hard drive fried, I assumed that was what happened with this one. I wasn’t as upset or surprised as I might have been since I never really expected it to last this long. It was sad, but I accepted it.

However, what I didn’t realize until later in the day was how much I relied on having two computers. Although I don’t have an automatic synching system, I manage to use each of them to back up really critical things like my blog book and important documents. Suddenly, other than some flash drives, I had no back up! And then there was the matter of – what if Danbo suddenly died? I’d be completely computer-less! Jumping Jehoshaphat! I couldn’t bear the thought! I had to get on eBay immediately and start researching a replacement!

Now if you knew me like my friends do, you’d know that when I research something, I research the ever lovin’ daylights out of it! For four days and nights I haunted eBay like some ghostly stalker. I decided I wanted to get another iBook instead of a Powerbook and I knew what things were important to me. Every time I found a likely candidate, I wrote the specifics on an index card along with the current price and when the auction ended. You have to understand that this is not an easy business. I might find one that had the speed I wanted, but not a big enough hard drive. Or one would have a nice hard drive, but not nearly enough RAM. Or maybe the buyer wrote up a description in such a way that made me suspect he was shifty. And so it went. I’d walk around the house, shuffling those cards like a Mississippi card shark, every once in a while discarding one as “not good enough.” I bid on a few and lost them in the last ten seconds. And then Friday I chanced upon the one I was waiting for. It had everything I was looking for plus a 45 day repair or replace warranty and it was a “Buy it Now” offering. So…I took a deep breath and “Bought it Then!” Now it’s just a matter of waiting for it to be delivered.

Sunday, after emailing my friend, Charles, about it, he responded by saying that he didn’t think it sounded like the Powerbook’s hard drive had died. He suggested that it was more likely to be a logic board failure or even a faulty AC power adapter. He requested that I not throw it away until he had a chance to tinker with it.

Later that day something was nagging at the corner of my brain. I finally realized it was his AC adapter comment. I knew I had checked the adapter for burnt areas, but that was it. Could something have gone wrong with the adapter? Naw! But, since I had a spare one, I decided to try the other one, just in case. I plugged it into my poor dead Powerbook and pressed the “on” button. Nothing happened…and then I heard “CHIME!” I watched as the black screen suddenly sprang to life and I stood there with my mouth open. Everything worked. P was back!

Do I believe it was just the adapter? Not really. I think P really died and heard this computer-generated voice saying, “Come to the light, P! Move toward the light!” And as he started to move, he suddenly remembered how his momma, Star, lovingly tickled his keys every day and kept his screen clean and all of the wonderful stories he got to write. And when the AC adapter “shocked” him to life, he chose to come back to me. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

So meanwhile, instead of being a one-computer person, I am going to be, oddly enough, a three-computer person! Do I feel stupid? A bit. But, what am I going to do? At least I got the new iBook at a really good price and like the Girl Scout that I was, I’m prepared. Boy, am I ever prepared!